Was it un coup de foudre ?

SG : Not sure if I'm one to believe in love at first sight, but the first time I saw Jon, I thought he looked like a lot of fun... and I was right :,)

JS : One look was all it took, I fell right under Sarah's spell (and that's where I stay to this day :)).

How did you two meet ?

Some love stories start with a glance across the room—Jon and Sarah’s began with pickles, a slippery dancefloor, and a hint of scandal.

Back in their Princeton swim team days, Jon was a senior, Sarah was a freshman (we know, we know), and one fateful night, she and her partner-in-crime Nikki found themselves ravenous at a party. Enter Jon, gallantly supplying a jar of Mt. Olive pickles. That night, the music's percussives were electric, the synths infectious, and the jigs jumping. In their excitement, Sarah and Nikki promptly sent said pickles flying across the dancefloor.

What they did not know? These pickles were not Jon’s to give—they belonged to Wade.

The next day, Wade—hungry, betrayed, and pickle-less—faced Jon with a simple yet profound question: Was it worth it? Was impressing some girls at a party worth the ultimate briny sacrifice ?

Fast forward, and the answer is obvious: Absolutely. Jon and Sarah are getting married, Nikki is a bridesmaid, and Wade—his pickled pride finally set aside—is the best man.

How do you like them pickles?

Who made the first move ?

Jon did. Ambitiously. Questionably. With mixed results.

After gallantly procuring pickles, Jon was completely captivated by Sarah — who took a bit longer to notice him.

His first attempt ? A bold approach in broad daylight, upon spotting Sarah with a neuroscience textbook :

"Oh wow, is that a neuroscience book? So, like… you like brains and stuff ?”

Sarah’s response has been lost to time.

Undeterred, Jon pivoted to a new strategy : mild deception. He commandeered a mutual friend’s phone (thank you, Christie !), and called Sarah. When she picked up, expecting Christie, Jon was on the other end, feigning surprise :

“Oh, Sarah ? You called ? What a delight to hear from you !”

The bit was charming enough that he did this multiple times. Unfortunately, Sarah never actually called him back.

Jon, however, was nothing if not persistent. He soon realized that the way to Sarah’s heart wasn’t through pickup lines or prank calls — it was through sheer academic endurance. The only way he could consistently spend time with her ? Accompany her to the library. And so he did. For weeks.

Somewhere between studying (him) and loitering (also him), Jon managed to earn his best semester GPA ever. More importantly, he finally built up the courage to ask Sarah to see the Christmas lights.

This time, she said yes :)

It's been quite the adventure these past few years !

After graduating from Princeton, Jon pursued pharmaceutical research, working in the lab at Joslin Diabetes Center within Harvard Medical School. They say opposites attract, and Sarah was definitely on a different track -- spending her final years at Princeton studying global security threat indices, theatre, French, and Latin American Studies -- writing four theses to graduate. Jon would take the Amtrak down from Boston to NYC to see her, and the two would have study dates at the library (some things never change).

Jon has always been Sarah's biggest fan -- and still is -- he was the muse behind so many of her plays, the patient sounding board for scatterbrained and developing ideas, and the one who always brought a good laugh when she took things too seriously. When Sarah said she wanted to move back to Paris, Jon made sure that, when the time came, he could go with her. He convinced his new job that the love of his life was moving and, naturally, he had to follow. Jon, ever the charmer, made it work, packed his bags, and headed for France.

That was the plan, at least—until Sarah took a small detour (sorry Jon !). She was accepted to Trinity College Dublin for a master’s in philosophy, so the two found themselves long distance once again, Jon in Lyon and Sarah in Dublin. It wasn’t easy, but they trusted the process -- and it paid off :)

Sarah graduated from Trinity's Samuel Beckett Centre and started working at the Centre Pompidou in the museum's philosophy branch. Now, at long last, they live together in Paris—eating too much cheese, debating which boulangerie has the best baguette, and which domaine holds the title for best butter in France.

La vie est belle -- and it's just the beginning :,)